A sales manager who worked for me once had a big meeting coming up with an important client, and he was worried he wouldn't be able to close the deal. I spent time coaching him on how to present our product, and over time he felt much more confident. However, I wasn't completely sure he was ready, and I didn't want to risk losing the business. I told him I'd go to the meeting with him and make the pitch myself while he watched.
有一次，一位在我手下工作的销售经理即将拜访一个重要客户进行关键谈判。他有点担心自己没法成功谈下单子。我花了一些时间指导他应该如何介绍我们的产品。之后，他觉得更有信心了。但是，我仍然不敢完全相信他，而且我也不想承担谈判失败的损失。于是我告诉他，我会和他一起去拜访客户，亲自与客户沟通，他只要在旁边看着。
It wasn't until later -- when he was no longer working for me -- that I found out how resentful he had been that I had stepped in and decided to try to solve his problem for him.
直到前不久——他已经从我这里辞职了，我才意识到他当时对我有多反感，因为我踩过界了，越俎代庖，想要替他解决问题。
Early on in my managerial career, my instinct was to jump in and solve my team's problems by myself. I finally realized that taking on too many of the issues they should be solving on their own made it impossible for me to scale my attention as the company grew. I also frustrated many of the people on my team.
管理生涯的早期，我会本能地介入团队面临的问题，亲自加以解决。后来我发现，处理太多这类原本应该由员工自己解决的问题，让我自己无法专注于公司的成长，同时也会让我很多手下感到难堪。随着时间推移，我越来越清楚地意识到，如果我想要管理好一家不断成长的公司，保持士气高涨，我就必须做好放权。我知道我至少遵守了一条准则，那就是雇佣比我聪明的人。所以我必须信任他们能做好自己该做的事，而我则应该专注于只属于我的本职工作。现在，如果发现了问题，我会首先问自己有没有派正确的人去处理，而不必去亲自解决。
To sum it up, I only do what only I can do. And I realized that -- as a CEO -- I need to spend my time doing five things that no one else can do:
总结一下，我应该只做只有我才能做的事情。而作为一个CEO，我认识到公司里有以下5件事是只有我能做的。
1. Strategy: Make sure that I create a coherent strategy for the business (in conjunction with other team members, of course; doing this in a vacuum is perilous).
1. 制订战略：确保我为公司制定了与业务运营相适配的战略（当然，这需要与其他团队成员沟通调整，闭门造车是很危险的）。
2. Communication: Making sure that this strategy is communicated clearly to everyone on my management team and throughout the organization. Everyone needs to be on the same page about what we have to do.
2. 做好沟通：确保将公司的战略清晰地传递给管理层的每一个成员，并进一步扩展至整个组织。每个人都应该同样清楚地了解到我们必须做的事。
3. Hiring: Put the right people in place.
3. 招聘人才：把正确的人安排在正确的岗位上。
4. Help: Remove any obstacles so that the team can succeed at doing the things at which they excel.
4. 扫除障碍：为工作团队清除工作道路上的障碍，让他们能各施其能。
5. Financing: Making sure we have enough capital to achieve our goals (and getting that funding in place if we don't).
5. 筹集资金：确保公司有充足的资本去完成目标（如果不够，就要想办法找钱）。
This does not mean I abdicate responsibility for any of the departments that report to me. I am directly involved with product, ad sales, editorial, marketing, PR, etc. on a daily basis to help steer them in the right direction. However, unless I believe those managers are making egregious errors in judgment (which rarely happens), I let them lead and only overrule something when I absolutely have to.
这么说并不意味着我会卸下所有下属部门的工作责任。我仍然每天直接参与产品设计、广告销售、评论撰写、市场营销、公共关系等工作，帮助员工把握正确的方向。不过，除非我觉得手下的经理犯了非常严重的决策性错误（这种情况很少发生），我才会越权去作出必要的干涉。其余时间里，我都放手让他们去领导自己的团队。
I have to trust my team to do the rest.
我必须信任我的团队，让他们去做剩下的事情。
Paul Greenberg is the CEO of CollegeHumor Media.
保罗·格林伯格是CollegeHumor 传媒公司的CEO。